Flooding Impacts Private Wells, Public Water Systems

The severe flooding that struck Eastern Pennsylvania this week has compromised the safety of many private wells and some public water systems. The Carbon County Groundwater Guardians have posted a link on their Web site offering flood-related information to well owners. The group is also offering help to well owners, who don't need to live in Carbon County to receive assistance.

For a list of Pennsylvania drinking water advisories by county and water safety tips from the state Department of Environmental Protection, click here. The state's information emphasizes the dangers due to bacteria and other microorganisms from flooded septic systems, sewage treatment facilities and animal waste lagoons. However, well owners and others coming in contact with floodwater should also be cautious about potential contamination resulting from chemical spills at private homes and industrial facilities.

Forum Focuses on Schuylkill Township Sludge Dumping Plan

The Schuylkill Township supervisors will hold a public forum on Wednesday, June 21 to discuss a Reading Anthracite subsidiary's plan to dump sewage sludge in their community, which has an ordinance regulating sludge dumping. The event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Schuylkill Township Municipal Building in MaryD, about six miles southwest of Hometown.

"The forum will provide municipal officials and concerned citizens with the latest information about the dangers of the land application of sewage sludge, and the latest legal tools that have been prepared for Township governments to protect communities from sludge," according to a press release announcing the event.

Among those scheduled to speak are Russell and Antoinette Pennock from Berks County, Pa. Their son Daniel died in 1995 at age 17 of viral and bacterial pneumonia and rotavirus after being exposed to land applied sewage sludge. Since then, the Pennocks have become outspoken critics of sludge dumping.

Coal Creek Ranch, a subsidiary of Reading Anthracite, recently sent letters to area residents informing them that it plans to spread sludge -- which it prefers to call "biosolids" -- on pasture and timber land it leases along the north side of Route 209 from Tuscarora to Tamaqua, the Pottsville Republican reports. Reading Anthracite is a major regional polluter, responsible for numerous abandoned mine sites and the operator of waste-coal-burning cogeneration plants. The company is also pushing a plan to build a heavily polluting coal-to-oil refinery in Schuylkill County.

The Schuylkill Township project involves Class B sludge from the Philadelphia Wastewater Treatment Plant, according to Tim Craven, biosolids coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's regional office in Wilkes-Barre. While the Philadelphia plant holds the state permit for the sludge application, Craven approved the dumping of the material in Schuylkill Township via an approval letter dated May 17.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency regulates sludge as either Class A or B, depending on the material's level of disease-causing pathogens, which can include bacteria, viruses and parasitic worms. Class B sludge contains more pathogenic materials than Class A sludge.

Sludge also contains tens of thousands of other toxic substances and chemical compounds. These can include PCBs, pesticides, dioxin, heavy metals and industrial solvents -- basically, all the waste that gets flushed into a municipal wastewater system and removed and concentrated during the treatment process. Studies have also noted the presence in sludge of radioactive substances flushed into sewage systems by hospitals, decontamination laundries and other businesses.

Until the early 1990s, sewage sludge was typically dumped into the oceans. After Congress banned that practice, the EPA instituted a policy promoting sludge disposal on agricultural land. Since then, there's been growing concern over health problems -- including deaths -- related to sludge exposure.

Some Hometown-Area Residents to Get Health Survey

People living along Meadow Avenue in Hometown and Ben Titus Road in the Still Creek community will be receiving questionnaires today asking them about their health. The questionnaires are from a New York law firm, and they are the result of an effort by the Army for a Clean Environment to draw attention to environmental health-related problems in the area.

ACE Director Dante Picciano recently contacted the firm, which specializes in environmental litigation, for assistance. After learning about the serious health concerns of local residents, the firm's environmental investigators agreed to conduct a preliminary assessment of the area's health. Picciano says he's not sharing the firm's name with the media at this time in order to avoid the appearance of solicitation.

"I contacted them and said there was the potential here for health problems, and they agreed," Picciano says. "A primary responsibility of government is to protect the people from harm. Based on our numerous exposures to toxic chemicals and the increased levels of health problems in our area, we must conclude that the government's not doing their job."

The law firm will be distributing 100 questionnaires to residents along Meadow Avenue and Ben Titus Road. The two-page document asks for basic identifying information and whether the recipients or any immediate family members have been diagnosed with any illnesses, and it asks respondents to provide details. Respondents will be provided with a stamped, self-addressed envelope and asked to send their answers directly to the firm. There is no cost to participate in the study and no obligations. The firm will not contact residents; residents must contact the firm.

The firm has not filed a lawsuit and is not looking at filing one at this point, Picciano notes. Rather, the questionnaires will help determine whether there are unusual patterns of illness in the areas studied and could help determine what steps should be taken next. A lawsuit against polluters is one possibility.

"I understand that some people don't want to get involved, and that's fine," Picciano says. "But there are people who do want to get involved, and no one should stand in their way."

The unnamed law firm is at least the second to get involved with environmental health concerns in the Hometown area. Some local residents have been working with the Locks Law Firm of Philadelphia on a possible suit against parties responsible for local pollution. According to reports from some of those involved in the investigation, that firm's efforts have been focusing on pollution in the Still Creek drinking water reservoir from the nearby McAdoo Associates Superfund site and other sources.

Army for a Clean Environment Calls Out Rendell for Broken Promises on Toxic Dumping

The following letter to the editor was submitted to the Lehighton Times News, the Hazleton Standard Speaker, the Pottsville Republican and 30 other newspapers across Pennsylvania. Co-author Dante Picciano is the executive director of the Army for a Clean Environment, a grassroots environmental health advocacy organization based in Tamaqua. Kennedy is a Hometown resident and an ACE member.

To the Editor:

We are writing to share with you and your readers our personal experiences with Governor Ed Rendell in regard to the dumping of wastes in our communities. On November 19, 2003, Governor Ed Rendell was the guest on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) “Call-In” Program. One of us (Hilary Kennedy) asked the governor the following question: “I’d like to know your position on the dumping of New York harbor sludge in Pennsylvania.” Governor Rendell answered: “Well, easy question to answer. I’m against it.”

On May 17, 2004, Governor Ed Rendell was again the guest on the PCN “Call-In” Program. Hilary Kennedy asked the governor the following: “Governor, on November 19, 2003, on this same show, you stated that you were against the dumping of New York harbor sludge in Pennsylvania. I want to know why then did you allow the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on March 2, 2004 to issue a general permit for the dumping of New York harbor sludge throughout Pennsylvania?”

Governor Rendell responded “Well, again, there’s a Supreme Court decision that bars us from issuing a blanket rule that says we can make no out of sludge …, no out of state sludge, no out of state garbage, trash, whatever. There’s a Supreme Court decision that says one state cannot put up rules to bar that. What I said is that we would try our very best to limit the levels of trash or sludge that could be put into any one area and thereby limit the amount of sludge that came from out of state.”

Also on the May 17, 2004 PCN “Call-In” Program, Dante Picciano asked Governor Rendell “What is your position on House Bill 2275, the Water Dredge Material Municipal Regulation Act, that gives residents of an affected community a vote on the use of New York harbor sludge in mine reclamation projects in their community?” Governor Rendell answered, “Well, I'm not for letting anything be decided by referendum and that would be what this bill would try to do, Dante.”

On July 14, 2004, Governor Rendell addressed a demonstration crowd outside the Schuylkill County Art and Ethnic Center in Pottsville. At that time, Governor Rendell approached Dante Picciano and gave him his fax number. He told Dante Picciano that if he would fax him a letter with our complaints, he would personally see that the complaints would be investigated and that he would get back to us. On July 15, 2004, we faxed Governor Rendell a letter with our concerns about the dumping of river sludge and fly ash in our communities. To date, we have not received a response from Governor Rendell.

On April 26, 2006, Governor Rendell addressed a demonstration crowd outside the Fire Department in Coaldale. On this occasion, Governor Rendell offered a face-to-face meeting with Dante Picciano and other protesters. Specially, Governor Rendell stated, “The only thing I can say to you, I’ll be happy to see three or four of you in Harrisburg or in Philadelphia. If there is some company, an independent company, that you are going to be happy with [conducting the tests], I’m willing to spend the money for it.” To date, Governor Rendell has failed to schedule our face-to-face meeting.

Dante Picciano
Tamaqua, PA

Hilary Kennedy
Tamaqua, PA